The present disclosure relates to a door assembly comprised of a door provided in a cabinet of a home appliance and a door handle for operating the door, and more particularly, to a door assembly in which a door handle is articulated to facilitate opening and closing the door.
A home appliance generally comprises a plurality of outer panels forming a cabinet for housing the inner workings of the home appliance, each panel largely constructing one face of the cabinet. A door, operated by the user, provides access to the interior of the home appliance. For functional and aesthetic reasons, the door is installed flush with one face of the cabinet, to form at least a portion of the cabinet face, and is manually operated by a door handle fixed to an exterior surface of the door.
The door may be provided to any face of the cabinet and may be coupled to the door handle at one or more sites. Door handles having a long handle grip gripping surface are generally provided for operating large doors, i.e., doors occupying large areas of the cabinet face, in which case there are at least two coupling sites (handle bases). The door handle for such a door typically includes a handle grip as a bar separated from the door to allow the user's hand to grasp the door handle at a point along the bar between the coupling sites. A horizontally oriented bar is typically provided to a door opened by an upward or downward pulling action, and a vertically oriented bar is typically provided to a door opened by a pulling action that swings the door to the left or right.
Many appliances such as ovens, refrigerators, washers, dryers and dishwashers these days are provided with one or more prominent door handles typically fitted on the frontal face and arranged adjacent to the edge that typically lies opposite to that of the hinged edge. Thus, the handle is one of the few parts of the appliance that is extensively touched and felt by the user. The handle plays a key role in providing a satisfactory and enjoyable product experience to the user. Thus, there is a need to provide a door handle for an appliance which is easy to grip and enhances the enjoyment of using the appliance for the user.
A few problems are commonly associated with existing fixed door handles. For example, in most appliances, doors may need to be opened to nearly 180 degrees of an opening angle for providing a full and comfortable view and access to the internal cavity of the appliance. The fixed types of door handles in such cases would reach an awkward position when the doors are being opened beyond a 90 degree opening angle, making it difficult for the user to continue holding them while applying the door opening force. This may also require the user to stretch their arms/wrists extensively during wide-angle door opening or closing making such door operation uncomfortable and strenuous.
This deficiency in existing door handles may also prompt users to adopt a style of pulling hard and swinging the door to attempt a wide angle opening without having to retain handle contact during the entire door travel. This would result in doors being banged heavily against the structures and may result in damages to the door system and the structures. Further, this may also cause doors to retreat some travel after banging against the structure before finally coming to an undesired resting position.
Thus, there is a need to provide an articulated door handle for an appliance which overcomes the above-mentioned deficiencies and provides better and more advantageous overall results.